Category Archives: Book Reviews

On the Hippie Trail

Usually I post book reviews on this website/blog, but because of its focus on travel, for the past two weeks I have posted a two-part review of On the Hippie Trail: Istanbul to Kathmandu and the Making of a Travel … Continue reading

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Book Review:  Aflame: Learning from Silence by Pico Iyer

Aflame is a celebration of Iyer’s decades-long infatuation with a Benedictine retreat in an isolated spot in the hills above the ocean at Big Sur. In his recent book The Half-Known Life: In Search of Paradise, Iyer searches the world … Continue reading

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Book Review:  Memorial Days: A Memoir by Geraldine Brooks

On May 27, 2019, Memorial Day, Australian writer Geraldine Brooks received a phone call telling her that her sixty-year-old husband, Tony Horwitz, who was away on a book tour, suddenly collapsed on a sidewalk in Chevy Chase, Maryland, and died. … Continue reading

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Book Review:  Orbital by Samantha Harvey

The first I heard about the novel Orbital was when I read that it had won the Booker Prize for 2024. It seems I wasn’t the only one whose radar it passed under. The Seattle Public Library, usually top-of-the-line in … Continue reading

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Book Review:  The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson

I hesitated before deciding to go ahead and write and post this review. After all, my intention is to attract readers, not repel them. But then again, the type of readers I am interested in reaching is not going to … Continue reading

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Book Review:  Charlie Chaplin vs. America: When Art, Sex, and Politics Collided by Scott Eyman

When you think of iconic film makers of the early twentieth century few, if any, shine as brightly as Charlie Chaplin. The man was a comic genius and helped to define an art form. My personal favorite among his films … Continue reading

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Book Review:  No Ordinary Assignment: A Memoir by Jane Ferguson; Part Two

As I read of Jane Ferguson’s adventures in war-torn countries in the Middle East, I was reminded of my own travels in the area. During a narrow window of time in the 1960s and 1970s, it was possible to travel … Continue reading

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Book Review:  No Ordinary Assignment: A Memoir by Jane Ferguson; Part One

This is an extraordinary, exciting memoir written by one brave badass woman. And when I use the word badass, I in no way imply disrespect. To the contrary. I mean it in the sense that the Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines … Continue reading

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Thoughts on The Last Dangerous Visions Edited by Harlan Ellison and J. Michael Straczynski

This is not a book review, because at this time I don’t plan to read the entire volume. I borrowed The Last Dangerous Visions from the library to read the introduction and afterword by Straczynski, which comprise almost seventy-five pages, … Continue reading

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Book Review: Harlan Ellison’s Greatest Hits Edited by J. Michael Straczynski; Part Three

These days we are constantly beset by entertainment that features extreme acts of violence. We see violent deeds so often in film and television that we have become inured to them; they have, in a sense, lost their shock value. … Continue reading

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